The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public institute of technology located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. It is a statutory institution, meaning it functions under the provisions of the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961.
The institute was formally established in 1959 as the third Indian Institute of Technology, following an Indo-German agreement signed in Bonn. Its creation was part of a post-independence national effort to build institutions that could support scientific and technological growth, modeled after institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The institute was founded with technical, academic, and financial assistance from the government of West Germany.
IIT Madras operates as an autonomous statutory organization under the framework of the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 (Act No. 59 of 1961), which was notified on December 20, 1961. This Act grants the IITs legal status, including the power to award degrees, and declares them as Institutes of National Importance. The institute's administration and control are overseen by a Board of Governors, while its academic policy is decided by the Senate, which comprises all professors. The twenty-three IITs are centrally administered by the IIT Council, an apex body established by the Government of India.
The institute is connected to the larger IIT system and is consistently ranked as the top engineering institute in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). Recently, IIT Madras has introduced new postgraduate programs, including a Master of Arts (MA) in Public Policy and multiple Master of Technology (MTech) programs in areas like Semiconductor Materials Technology, to strengthen interdisciplinary education and address national priorities. Furthermore, IIT Madras is the Organizing Institute for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2027, for which it has introduced a new paper on Robotics and Automation (RA) and revised the syllabus.